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Visiting Taipei

Someone I know is going to go visit Taipei for a weekend, and asked me where in Taipei that she and her friends should go. So I spent an hour typing everything that I know about visiting Taipei in an e-mail. I thought I should share this here as well and get some feedback from people who actually are from Taipei and correct any of my outdated or inaccurate information. My comments about various places are just my personal opinions, of course.

I can’t seem to find a good printable (e.g. pdf) map of Taipei. But you can readily find a detailed map of Taipei in the Taipei travel books sold in HK bookstores (cost: ~$40 HKD). I found those travel books useful for finding good places to eat, but not so much on shopping (I don’t think there’s much to buy in Taipei anyway, except books). As for the places to go, it depends on what type of places that you want to go (e.g. museum, scenery, shopping).

Museums: I don’t think it’s really worth the time (but a good time killer if you find yourself out of things to do). 故宮博物院 is okay (the things there are mostly small items, which is logical considering those stuff were scrambled out of Beijing during the civil war). But 中正紀念堂 and 國父紀念館 less so. And this is coming from a person who has interest in history.

Scenery: I’d definitely recommend going to 淡水 during late afternoon to watch the sunset. The bridge at the fisherman’s pier (you may need to ride a boat to go out there, even though that place is reachable by land) is beautiful. Places like 九份 is a 1 to 2-hour train ride (can’t remember clearly) away from Taipei City, but it’s worth a visit if you can spare the time. 陽明山 seems to be a good place for both day time (walking around trails and look at the scences) and night time (restaurants that overlook the city of Taipei at night). I haven’t been there (I went to meet with some local friends when my trip-mates went there on the last day of our trip), but I would like to go there when I visit Taipei again.

Shopping: The 24-hour 誠品書店 is one of the most well-known place for HK people (you’ll find lots of them there, and according to some, they do not exactly behave very well), I couldn’t find my book there when I was there though (damn). Note that only the bookstore portion of the 24-hr 誠品 is opened during late night (there’s also a large gift and music section on the lower levels). There’s a new 誠品 opened in 信義區 (which is the new commercial/shopping district), which is pretty nice according to comments from visitors, but it’s not 24-hrs though. Basically you’ll find big and small bookstores opened left, right and centre. So you don’t need to worry about finding where to buy books. Other than books, I can’t really say much about shopping. The malls and department stores are pretty much the same as the ones in Hong Kong (both in terms of appearance, prices, and the quality of service). But I guess Taipei 101 (I think it’s currently the tallest building in the world after they put an antenna up top) is worth a visit. Going up to the observation deck of the tower is probably a good idea (it wasn’t opened yet when I went there). There is also the underground mall. I think I’ve been there but I didn’t remember much from it. 西門町 is kind of like Mongkok of Taipei, both me and my friends were not overly impressed.

Eating: Now to the best part. Lots of nice food to eat, especially at the night markets. I’ve been to 士林夜市 (which fit very nicely with a trip to 淡水, since it’s right on the way between 淡水 and 台北車站, so you can go there on your way back from 淡水). There’s also 饒河街夜市 which seems to be the new hot spot of HK tourists (and it’s near 信義區). I’d also recommend 鼎泰豐, the 小籠飽 there is the best that I’ve ever eaten (and I ate quite a few of them in Hong Kong, since Shanghai food is kind of in nowadays). But you’ll need to get there early (i.e. before 11:00am) or you’ll have to line up. Of course there’s bubble tea and 小吃, which is both cheaper and better than the ones in Canada (duh). Food is inexpensive compared to Hong Kong.

Getting around: The bus service from the Airport to 台北車站 is called 國光客運 (I think there’s only one company that does that line), which is convenient (and certainly cheaper than taxi) if you’re staying in one of the hotels near that area. The subway in Taipei is called 捷運 (or MRT in English abbreviation). It’s probably the easiest way to get around. But some stations are located in the middle of seemingly nowhere (e.g. 市政府 MRT station is 10-minute walk away from the newly built malls such as Taipei 101), and the stations are small (some are similar the skytrain stations in Vancouver in size), so expect to do some walking after getting out of the station. I only rode on the bus twice, and they are single deckers similar to the ones in North America. The way the bus fare is collected is different than it is in Vancouver or Hong Kong though. Taxies are not expensive when you have multiple people sharing the cost and they are no more scary than the ones in Hong Kong. Some taxi drivers would refuse to take you if you want to go to places that they don’t want to go though, just like Hong Kong. Traffic congestion is not too bad, contrary to popular perception.

Mobile phone: GSM phones from Hong Kong (and probably Canada) will work, along with sim cards from Hong Kong. Expect roaming charge though, of course. If you expect to use the phone a lot, you can buy a pre-paid card (預付卡) at a convenience store. You’ll need to fill in your address information, which is of course the hotel that you’re staying in.

Currency Exchange: From my experience and according to the Taipei travel newsgroup, the currency exchange inside the 禁區 in the airport gives the best rate (there’s another one outside of the 禁區 in the airport). You can probably also exchange money at the hotel, but of course the prices there is not very good at all. Of course there’s always Interact.

Internet: Probably not a necessity. I don’t know if the hotel would provide internet access. But I guess you can go to computer malls such as NOVA near the Taipei Train Station to get online to check web mail and etc.

Customs and etc.: No visa is needed for Canadian passport holders (there’s 落地簽證 for HK permanent residences).

General: People are mostly very friendly (to tourist anyway, Chinese people are always friendly to money) and willing to help when asked.

Judging from the length of this post, you might have guessed I like Taipei a lot :p (actually I liked most of the places that I’ve traveled to). I certainly would like to visit again when I go back to Hong Kong sometime in the future. The pictures from my 2004 Taipei trip is at: http://www.davidmak.info/album/v/taipei/?g2_GALLERYSID=5a09104f497f66ba727916b5e0a05658

And here are some links that I dig up which may be useful:

Taipei E-map:
http://addr.taipei.gov.tw/aspx/chinesemap.aspx

Scan of a map of Taipei, the most detailed one that I found:
http://www.cogsh.tp.edu.tw/benny/student/cp41/1/%A5x%A5_%A5%AB%A6U%A4%C0%B0%CF%A6a%B9%CF.htm

MRT Map with mini-map of the stations
http://www.himrt.com.tw/map-index.htm

Bus Service from Airport to Taipei Station:
http://www.kingbus.com.tw/

Taipei Travel Net
http://www.taipeitravel.net/en/default.asp?pcode=2

Taipei Traveling on Wikipedia
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%BA%E5%8C%97%E5%B8%82%E6%97%85%E9%81%8A%E6%99%AF%E9%BB%9E%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8

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Pictures from the East

As promised (?), the pictures from Ottawa are now posted on my album:

http://www.davidmak.info/album/

There are some notable “omissions” in the photo collections, as I did not take pictures inside the National Gallery and in the main part of the War Museum. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to take pictures in those places, and it would distract me from looking at the exhibits and reading the captions anyway.

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Trip Summary

For those of you who didn’t notice, I’m back in Vancouver for a couple days now. The trip was good/okay/not bad I guess. Here is a summary of the trip, as per request by someone. 🙂

Ottawa

There isn’t much to talk about in the conference itself. When I was presenting, there’s about a crowd of a about a dozen people in the room. So I made the presentation, and the session volunteer (more on this later) asked: “Any questions?”

And there was slience.

So, I don’t know how the presentation went, honestly. But I like what my lab mate Steve said after hearing the story: They were stunned by your brillance. They may be stunned alright, but I’m just not sure by what, or by who for that matter.

Someone asked me afterwards: Didn’t the session chair at least asked a question (so that you don’t feel unloved)? Well, I guess it’s kind of hard for the session chair to ask any question when he’s not in the session. Quite a few presenters are AWOL as well. I guess they registered for the conference to have the paper published in the proceedings, but never intended to make the trip.

I bumped into the Technical Committee Chair afterwards, and I told him about the presentation. “That’s good.” He said. “When people don’t ask questions, you know that you’re not far from done, because if people don’t understand what you do, they will just let you pass and give you the degree.”

I sure hope that’s the case. :p

Now, onto the more interesting parts.

There’s lots of old prestigious buildings in Ottawa, some of which I couldn’t identify. A perfect place for social studies field trips I guess. The scenery are pretty good because there’s always rivers and canals nearby. I traveled around the city almost exclusively on foot, as I was too lazy to look up for bus routes and schedules (not to mention bussing is expensive). The streets are mostly clean (compared to Toronto), but the food was kind of expensive.

I went to the National Art Gallery and spent 4 hours there. Since I’m not well educated in visual arts (actually, I’m not well educated in any form of arts), so I don’t have much to comment, except that I get to see the real things of some of paintings featured on textbooks and television (e.g. Death of General Wolfe, The Meeting of School Trustees).

The Parliament Building is nice, and the tour sounded like Social Studies 11. After the tour, I went up to the House of Commons public gallery. Only a few MPs (whom I do not recognize by name) were there, and they were talking something related to the budget. What they were doing was just trying to blame each other for the current deficiencies in the system (what else). What annoyed me was the MPs were reading off scripts. Members of the Conservative caucus suddenly appeared in the chamber, some took their seats but most hurried off to somewhere else after appearing briefly. I didn’t catch what they were saying so I don’t know why that happened. Need to watch more Parliament TV to know I guess.

I walked all the way to the Canadian War Museum, and it didn’t seem to be opened to me at first. I almost turned back without checking for the entrance before I saw a tank (which sounded like a lawn mower at a distance) driving out from the back. Originally, I expected the Canadian War Museum to be a modest, small place, but it was acutally the opposite. I guess Canada did have a colourful military history, with its heavy involvement in World Wars I and II. A lot of equipment, vehicles, and etc. are on display in the museum, with comprehensive background information. What I found interesting was that the exhibits go into great lengths to convey the horrors of war, instead of glorifying those who died for the country. I’m wondering if other countries’ war museums have the same approach.

Places that I went to included Rideau Hall, which I didn’t get to go inside building because I missed the guided tours, the Supreme Court, where I ran into a bunch of junior high/elementary school kids and ended up touring the building with them, and the Currency Museum, which I thought was a waste of time.

The room in the University of Ottawa is pretty good, but it is missing two things (for me anyway): hair dryer, and much more importantly, internet connection. I couldn’t receive wireless signals from the room and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to log in anyway as the residence don’t provide access. The room is somehow kind of dusty as well.

I guess there’s good things that come out of the lack of internet access. With no other form of entertainment (I’m not much of a TV watcher), I concentrated on reading the books that I brought from home. One is 匈奴, which was bought on the recommendation of 小孟 and the other one is the red 冷靜與熱情之間, which I never seem to be able to finish. I finished 匈奴 on the first night that I was there and finished (yes, finished!!!) 冷靜與熱情之間 on the train en route to Toronto. It was acutally quite fitting to read the last part of the book on a train (those who read the book and/or seen the movie would know why). Book reviews may (the key word is may) come later, but I probably need to reread the blue 冷靜與熱情之間, which I’ve read a couple years ago.

Toronto

I’ve been to Toronto in 2004, so I don’t have much desire to go to tourist places this time around. I spent several days hanging out with Astor, Veronica and Frank. The activities are the usual movies, mall-walking, dinner and bubble tea. And of course I spent some time with my sister as well, and the activities are much of the same. It felt just like in Vancouver.

The only museum kind of place that I went to in Toronto was the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was smaller than I expected, and frankly not very special (perhaps going there days after visiting the capital has to do with this). The best part was the trophy room, where I get to see all the trophies presented at the NHL awards, and of course the Stanley Cup. At first I saw a sign saying that people can take picture with the cup for $10, so I thought the staff wouldn’t be allowed to take pictures for visitors with their own camera. But then everybody asked and got their pictures taken, so I might as well do that.

Overall it was a satisfying trip where most of my pre-trip objectives are fulfilled. One thing that I wished to do but didn’t was to go to Montreal as well (the idea was scrapped because of time constraints). I guess there’ll be opportunities because I’m almost sure to travel to Toronto again sometime in the future (not that I like the city that much).

Oh, and the pictures will come later. I am still in the process of posting them.

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Return from Internet Exile

For those of you who may wonder why I was not online for the last 4 or so days, or why I was not returning phone calls, I am currently in Toronto now and I was in Ottawa for a conference in the past four days. The University of Ottawa Residence, which I was staying in, did not have any internet connection (you’d think they should when they charge $90 a night).

Anyway, I will write more about Ottawa and etc. later I guess.